YUDL VAYDENFELD

YUDL VAYDENFELD (June 22, 1884-September 20, 1966)

            He was born in Burdujeni, Romania (Moldova).  He attended religious primary school, public school, and high school.  In 1913 he completed his engineering studies in a Romanian state school.  He was active in the Yiddish cultural movement on the left.  He survived the years of WWII living underground.  He began his writing activities with articles about educational issues in the Labor Zionist press after WWI.  Later, after WWII and the Bolshevization of Romania, he was a contributor to Ikuf-bleter (Pages from IKUF [Jewish Cultural Association]) in Bucharest, in which he published poems, stories, children’s poetry, as well as translations from Russian, German, Romanian, Hungarian, and Hebrew (from Ibn-Gavirol, Ibn-Ezra, and others).  His books include: Oyfgabe-bukh (Assignment book), “arithmetic assignments and examples for the second and third school year” (Warsaw, 1913), 100 pp.; Mayselekh (Stories) (Czernowitz, 1938), 16 pp.; Yidisher alef beys (Yiddish ABC), textbook for school beginners (Bucharest, 1945), 96 pp.; Di mayse mit der babetsi (The story with the old granny) (Bucharest, 1947), 16 pp.; Lernbikhl far yidish (Textbook for Yiddish) (Bucharest, 1949), 64 pp. Zoyln, poem (Soles, a poem) (Bucharest, 1952), 29 pp.; Lider (Poetry) (Bucharest, 1957), 162 pp.  A dramatization of his story “In a toytn mark-tog: (On a dead market day) appeared in Bukareshter shriftn (Bucharest writing) in 1982.  He died in Bucharest.

Sources: Y. Botoshanski, in Ikuf-bleter (Bucharest) 89 (July 13, 1950); Morgn-frayhayt (New York) (April 4, 1954); Fray yisroel (Tel Aviv) (August 20, 1954); H. Smolyar, in Folks-shtime (Warsaw) (February 19, 1957); Y. Karo, in Folks-shtime (October 12, 1957).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 237.]